Alkene epoxidation has been established as an important process for chemical synthesis as the resultant epoxide acts as a raw material or intermediate that can be transformed into many useful substances such as plasticizers, perfumes, and epoxy resins [1]. The conventional epoxidation process involves stoichiometric peracids as oxidising agents, but it is not environmentally friendly. In contrast, polymer-supported heterogeneous catalysts with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an oxidant have demonstrated strong catalytic activity and product selectivity [1, 2].
In this study, an efficient and selective polybenzimidazole supported molybdenum (VI) complex (PBI.Mo) was used for the batch epoxidation of 1,5-hexadiene and 1,7-octadiene. Experiments were carried out to study the effect of reaction temperature, feed molar ratio of alkene to TBHP, catalyst loading and reaction temperature on the yield of epoxide to optimize the reaction conditions in a classical batch reactor. Response surface methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was employed to study the interaction effect of different variables on the reaction response.

References
1. Bhuiyan, M.M.R.; Mohammed, M.L.; Saha, B. Greener and Efficient Epoxidation of 1,5-Hexadiene with tert-Butyl Hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an Oxidising Reagent in the Presence of Polybenzimidazole Supported Mo(VI) Catalyst. Reactions 2022, 3, 537–552.

2. Mbeleck, R.; Mohammed, M.L.; Ambroziak, K.; Sherrington, D.C.; Saha, B. Efficient epoxidation of cyclododecene and dodecene catalysed by polybenzimidazole supported Mo(VI) complex. Catal. Today 2015, 256, 287–293.